Cooking methods for vegetables

Vegetables are extremely versatile in the kitchen. We may use any of the following cooking methods to prepare them:

• Boiling, blanching or parboiling. All these terms refer to the same cooking method- cooking in briskly boiling large amount of salted water, akin to pasta cooking. The reason for large amount of water is to keep it at boil as much as possible when you add the vegetables.
• A large body of liquid keeps its heat better than a small amount. When you add the vegetables, it returns to boil relatively quickly. Large amount also helps to dilute accumulating leached-out acids that would change the color.
• Blanching and parboiling are the same things. The terms imply cooking in boiling water until nearly cooked but still quite crisp. Once you remove the vegetables from the boiling water, you quickly immerse them in cold water to stop the cooking process (iced water, that some cookbooks suggest, is not necessary-cold water instantly stops the process and you avoid an unnecessary step of ice water preparation).
• Then the vegetables are ready for a next cooking step, for cold storage or as salad ingredient. Boiling is a term that implies cooking to a softer stage than blanching. Today many cooks prefer to serve freshly-blanched crisp vegetables instead of boiled.
• You always add salt to the water to cook vegetables. The amount is about ½ teaspoon for every quart (liter) of water. Without salt the boiling water leaches out the vegetables' natural salt and the flavor becomes flat.
• Blanching produces the brightest colored vegetables of all cooking methods. They become brighter than their natural colors. Why? Vegetables are made up of tiny cells that contain the coloring pigments.
• There is a thin layer of air that surrounds each cell and that layer slightly mutes the color in living plants. It is similar to looking through a fogged-up windshield. The heat in blanching removes that thin air layer from the surface cells, and the muting effect disappears-the colors become brighter, like if you had put on the defroster for your windshield.
• 2. Steaming is a slower process than boiling or blanching requiring nearly twice the cooking time. Many cooks swear by steaming as the method for best-tasting vegetables. But thers (myself included) disagree. When you steam and blanch the same vegetable to the same degree of doneness, you notice a slight but distinct difference.

• Steaming does not bring the flavors out as fully as cooking in boiling water does. You may want to try it yourself and decide. You don't need to salt the water when steaming in spite of some cookbook directions. Salt does not evaporate with the steam and the vegetables remain unaffected.
• 3. Stir-frying, sautéing and frying are closely related methods. All use high heat and oil or fat to prevent sticking to the pan and to develop the flavor by the browning reaction In stir-frying you add just a film of oil, in sautéing somewhat more and you fry in deep, hot oil. When frying in a lot of oil, the cook needs to coat the vegetable with a batter, or the fast-escaping steam from the vegetables makes a terrible spatter in the oil. The coating moderates the direct contact of the hot steam and the oil, resulting in plenty of hissing and sizzling but less spattering.
• 4. Baking or roasting is suitable for many of the sturdier vegetables. Those with particularly high moisture content, such as cucumbers, are not suitable-by the time they are finished roasting, not much more than a brown pellet left. You always stir in a small amount of oil or fat with baked or roasted vegetables to help them brown and inhibit sticking to the pan.
• You may also add seasonings with the oil. Add robust herbs and spices early in the process but subtle-flavored herbs lose too much essential oil during the baking process, so it is best to add them late. For baking or roasting, use whole vegetables or large chunks. If you cut them into too small pieces, they dry out too much.

• 5. Broiling and grilling vegetables are just like broiling or grilling meat, except it is necessary to add some oil or fat to avoid sticking and promote browning. For this method the vegetables are often in thick slices.
• 6. Microwave cooking is very popular because of its speed. Many cooks believe in this method yet it is so fast that overcooking is a real danger. You leave the vegetables in the microwave oven just 30 seconds too long, and you end up with a product ready to be puréed for baby food. Microwave cooking doesn't brings out flavors, either. Test it for yourself and compare. Cook, say green beans, in the microwave to the same doneness as green beans you cook in boiling water or in a steamer.
• My memorable microwave cooking lesson was at a good friend's summer dinner party at the height of the corn season. He was a first-class gardener and his wife was a third-class cook. Unfortunately, she was the designated cook in the house. Minutes before dinner he picked fresh young corn in his backyard garden, handed them to his wife while us guests looked on in an expectation for fabulous culinary delights.
• Fresh-picked corn is a rarity in most of our lives and the flavor is often ahead of caviar and truffles. The corn cobs were ready in record time-she microwaved them. Instead of culinary delight it was a struggle to chew and swallow the tough, flavorless kernels. The microwaves totally annihilated them. It was a pure waste growing them since in this case frozen corn would have easily surpassed the fresh.